Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Hey, Winter...Remember Me?

This past Christmas, we decided to do something that we haven't done in five years: fly back to the US for Christmas.

I'm serious.

It all stemmed from Kaia watching numerous movies and television shows about winter, snow, etc. She has never seen snow and finally informed us that never taking her to see snow is tantamount to child abuse, so we relented.

We made the plans to go to Wisconsin in December and visit my family and do all of the wintery things that there are to do in a Midwestern winter, just to get it all out of her system, because I was pretty sure that after spending one Winter Break in a cold climate, we wouldn't be doing it again for....oh, about a million years.

In case you haven't been able to read the tone of this post, I am not a fan of winter. In fact, it could be said that winter and I are frenemies. Nope, not even frenemies, just straight-up enemies. There is a reason why I live in the tropics, people.

Knowing that Kaia gets whiny and complains about being cold in the air conditioning of the mall, I was pretty sure that her IDEA of winter was going to collide with the REALITY of winter in a way that could only end in tears. All of ours.

But, I decided that if winter was was she wanted, winter was what she'd get. So I booked the tickets and ordered the winter clothing. Snow suits were bought. Boots were bought. Thermal underwear was bought. Hats, mittens and scarves were bought. We were all set.

Except, of course, for the snow. We couldn't order that. I, using my awesome powers of deduction, figured that OF COURSE there would be snow in the Midwest in December. There would be nothing BUT snow! Snow everywhere! Snow aplenty.

On a side note, this reminded me of the time when we lived in the Middle East and bought our daughter a sandbox at a toy store. I asked the salesman if the store also sold sand to put in it, and he just looked at me in bewilderment, gestured with his arms and answered, "But...sand all around!"

I figured that even the mere mention of a concern that there wouldn't be any snow would result in the same look, the same gesture, and an answer of, "But...snow all around!"

Apparently, winter decided to repay my smack-talking by snubbing us and boycotting our visit completely. Well, not COMPLETELY- there was a light dusting on the ground when we landed in Chicago. It was enough for Kaia and my parents to build a mini-snowmanish-ish thing in the airport parking lot while waiting for us to pick up the rental car.

And on the last day of our visit, there was a bit more. Enough for Jabiz to take the kids to the park for an hour before returning in tears once the snow seeped into their mittens and boots and their hands and feet got the teeniest, tiniest bit cold.

But that was it- all we had to show for snow during a two-and-a-half week visit. While it was cold enough to put the coats, hats/mittens and thermal underwear to use (well, sort of. Skye refused to wear anything that might result in us actually looking like FIT parents who KNOW how to shield our child from the harsh elements, but Kaia wore hers. One out of two isn't bad, is it?), we didn't even take the tags off of the snow pants. The boots? Pristine condition.

As the days passed and no snow arrived, I realized that all of my visions of sledding, snow angels and snowball fights were going to be traded in for one small snowman in the airport parking lot. And that I was going to have to be GRATEFUL for that parking lot snowman memory that Kaia will carry around with her for years to come.

But that is fine, since after the park incident, Kaia declared that she is never going to winter again. It was a very special moment, when I got to be smug and proud at the same time.